Victoria University apologises after losing students' exam papers

The head of Victoria University's School of Architecture has apologised to students, after dozens of unmarked exam papers were lost by a staff member.

The university is refusing to say how the tutor managed to lose the important first-year papers.

Nearly a month after handing in his completed exam script, building science student Facundo Morrone has been delivered the unusual news that his exam paper has vanished.

"At first I was like, 'Is this a joke?' 'Is this some kind of spam prank email?'" he said.

In an email from Victoria University, the 19-year-old has been told he's one of 68 students whose unmarked exam scripts had "been misplaced" and were now "considered lost".

The November 9 exam was for the first-year "Introduction to Built Environment Technology" paper.

"This exam in particular is probably the most important one for a building scientist, in terms of the content covered" said Mr Morrone.

The university declined Newshub's interview requests, instead emailing a statement in which Pro-Vice Chancellor of Architecture Mike Wilson is quoted as simply saying the papers "had gone missing" in November after being "left unattended" by a tutor.

"I feel like the email was a bit clumsy in the way it was worded - it was kind of like... left you in the dark," said Mr Morrone.

Affected students won't have to re-sit the exam; instead all students' internal assessment assignments will be reweighted.

That'll impact selection for second-year courses at the university's highly competitive School of Architecture, which only takes about a third of the roughly 300 first-year students.

The university says a selection committee will take into consideration the exam botch-up when choosing second-year students.

Newshub.